Ends up about $930. I’d like to not go higher – lower if possible.Heaviest use is office work, gaming, photo editing, music. I have a large music collection, and large photo collection.The parts I have are within a year old, so I’d like to work with them but leave myself room to be able to upgrade later. I’m hoping this setup will last quite a while.I’m aiming for reliable, smooth, fast and slightly more than adequate for not too much money (aren’t we all, LOL).Since I don’t have experience I want parts I don’t have to fuss with too much, especially the case.

- You don't list your location, but if you're East of the Rockies and are lucky to live near a MicroCenter, that should be your first stop. They're the only place that will discount that CPU below list (significantly below list) and they typically throw in motherboard bundles for a reasonable price if you're willing to show flexibility on which motherboard.

- Having seen that you're kind of stuck on that board, though, and the CPU's price is pretty fixed, then you don't have a lot of components where you can play around with pricing left.

- The Crucial M4 (I assume 128GB) is about the best SSD right now in terms of price/performance. The RAM's not going to show much price difference by going with another brand. The DVD is fine and about as cheap as you can get.

- The only thing I see left is the case. I hate to make case suggestions because so much is tied up into someone's sense of aesthetics with a case. I will say, however, that it is the one component where you could very easily economize. It sounds like you're comfortable with Antec hardware, thus the desire to go with their stuff? If so, have you looked at the Three Hundred Two? There are plenty of good cases out there in the $60-90 range, saving you about $50 off the top.

Now having said that, you may want to consider adding decent case fans (to any case you choose) and consider a cooler better than the stock Intel cooler. If so, you'd want to do that up front. My cost-effective choice is the CoolerMaster 212 Evo or 212+ (whichever's cheaper.)

Really the only other thing you can do to economize is leave out the SSD. That's going to be a pain to fix later, though.

Have you thought about overclocking? (Since you *are* getting a K-series CPU?)

I'm basing my parts list on a lot of online reading and, as mentioned, the Hot Rod build suggestions. So - it seems that Ivy Bridge is probably the way to go if I'm expecting this to last a while, that's why I picked that CPU. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.) I've read very good things about the i5-2500K, but don't want to be obsolete as soon as I press the power button. I suspect my graphics card is nearing it's sell-by date, but it works fine for me.

DVD - I use it once in a blue moon. Useful for installing the odd program or the very occasional CD. So cheap is fine as long as it works. I'm more worried about the quality of the card reader, really. It gets a lot of use. They all seem to be cheap.

Case - Completely open to suggestion, not settled on P280. In fact, I can't find one I love. I want something without *bling* or lots of lights that will be easy for a Newbie to get the parts to fit into. On the other hand, my current case is 17 x 15", which seems to be not be very big, and I'd hate to replace it with a monster. If the card reader and jacks still worked on my current case, I'd just keep this. Alas...I'll look at the Three Hundred Two, but I'm not married to Antec, LOL. Also, my box is against the wall on my right, so anything with doors, especially that only open right to left, is a little annoying (my current Lenovo case has no doors).

I'm okay with this price point - I'm just wanting to make sure that whatever I decide on, it all plays together happily. Since I'm cannibalizing a few parts, I'd hate to order the wrong thing and be PC-less for a week or more! I don't want to go up in price, however. Sub $1000.

I live in Houston as well. Get thee to the Microcenter forthwith and save money buying the CPU and motherboard bundle. Even after paying sales tax, I saved $100 over buying from Newegg or Amazon for my recent build. Jus t pick up their sales circular as you enter the store - it lists all the combo CPU and motherboard prices that are on sale. Other option is to shop on their web site and add the CPU and motherboard to your cart and see what savings Microcenter offers - the combo purchase should knock off $50 off the listed price of the motherboard

I went with the MSI Z77A-GD65 rather than ASUS, as the ASUS availability on launch with anything other than the Deluxe model was problematic for me (I didn't want WiFi and didn't want to pay for features the ASUS had that I didn't want.) In retrospect, the only thing I miss is the advanced fan controls on the ASUS and I don't miss them that much. I went with 16GB as I do use virtualization from time to time and that will show some benefit for 16GB.

I'm glad I went with an aftermarket cooler from the start; they're just too difficult to install without taking the motherboard out.

I couldn't fit an SSD or case into my budget. It was a pain to re-use a case, but arguably worth the savings. I'm not a huge fan of front panels, so look around and see what else is out there. There are *tons* of great quality cases now at that $60-90 price point. I'd generally prefer to have an SSD, but I'm waiting for prices to come down just a bit more/sizes to get just a bit larger before dealing with the pain of a reinstall.

The real justification for the K series is overclocking, although with MicroCenter you can get them cheaply enough to not care-- they sell them cheaper than the non-K series. If that's in the cards, an aftermarket cooler is nice. The i5-2500k is a great CPU, but the justification for going with that requires you to overclock and overclock higher than the Ivy Bridge. They do overclock easier, so that's a delicate balancing act to determine which is better. IMHO, if you're overclocking for value, the Ivy Bridge is still the way to go (plus you get PCIe 3.0, which may matter more later in the system's lifespan.)

So, it sounds like if I go with this system it would be a waste if I didn't overclock. I'm so green I'll just be happy to get the thing running! Does this require extra cooling if I don't OC? I hadn't thought about that. And the cost of an SSD may be more than it's worth right now - I can always do that later, it's just tempting. I'd like a snappy system.

My only connection in the house from my desk to internet is wifi- no choice. I have a little time to research as I want to put Win8 on it, I'll definitely make a trip to MicroCenter... now to placate husband...

! Does this require extra cooling if I don't OC? I hadn't thought about that.

It's not required. The Intel heat sink is fiddly to install correctly, though, and doesn't cool as well (duh) as an aftermarket cooler. Just read the instructions carefully as the pushpins aren't entirely intuitive.

There are plenty of ways to add WiFi. You're not locked into (or out of) getting it on the board.

So, it sounds like if I go with this system it would be a waste if I didn't overclock. I'm so green I'll just be happy to get the thing running! Does this require extra cooling if I don't OC? I hadn't thought about that. And the cost of an SSD may be more than it's worth right now - I can always do that later, it's just tempting. I'd like a snappy system.

My only connection in the house from my desk to internet is wifi- no choice. I have a little time to research as I want to put Win8 on it, I'll definitely make a trip to MicroCenter... now to placate husband...

Thanks, guys!

You can buy a USB wifi adapter. Its cheapers,and you can use it on other computers. No need to spend money on wifi motherboard .

And from everything I have heard, windows 7 is the better option for desktop computing .